Press & broadcasting / Music
Lester Bangs
1948–1982 · rock critic, editor, musician
Legendary rock critic who moved to Detroit in 1971 to edit Creem, called the city 'rock's only hope' and spent five wild years there.
- Born
Escondido, California- Died
New York City
aged 33- Birth name
- Leslie Conway Bangs
- Detroit years
- 1971–1976
- Field
- Press & broadcasting, Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
A Californian who had made his name with scathing reviews in Rolling Stone, Bangs began freelancing for Detroit's Creem in 1970, and after writing a feature on Alice Cooper in 1971 he moved to Detroit and was named the magazine's editor. He fell hard for the city, whose raw, loud music he called 'rock's only hope', and for five years made Creem, by then based in the suburbs, the funniest and most anarchic voice in American rock writing: gonzo interviews, feuds with Lou Reed, and early championing of the Stooges, the MC5 and what became punk. Creem's circulation passed 200,000 in the mid-1970s. He left for New York in 1976, played in bands and wrote until his accidental overdose in 1982; his collected writings, Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung, remain a touchstone, and Philip Seymour Hoffman played him in Almost Famous.
Highlights
- Editor of Creem, 1971–1976
- Called Detroit 'rock's only hope'
- Anthology Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (1987)
- Portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman in Almost Famous (2000)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1971–1976
Creem magazine offices (Detroit, Walled Lake, Birmingham)
Closed · 1969–1989
Creem began at 3729 Cass Ave in Detroit, moved to a farm in Walled Lake and then to downtown Birmingham, Michigan; print publication stopped in 1989 and was relaunched in 2022.